Affirmative action?

Hello,
Excuse an old relic of the sixties, but I am for affirmative action.
It is not unfair. It is simply evening the scale a little bit, and
not even that much, judging by the minimal increase in women's entry into
the higher levels of our professions. It's taking account of the fact
that no one from our last job is going to remember that we had that great
idea, rather than the man who said the same thing and got listened to.
It's taking acount of the fact that it didn't occur to the guy who
organized the las t conference on our subject to invite us to speak.
After all, he'd already included one woman. In short, it's taking account
of the fact that our paper credentials, our recommendations, even our
publishing records (have you read about what happened when the same
article was submitted with an obviously female first author vs a male
first author?) are not going to reflect the quality of our work as well as
those of the man we're competing against.
That is not being unfair. That is making the least effort possible
to be fair.
Donna J. Carty
"To be perfect is to change often." John Cardinal Neuman